Random stuff...

OK- a few tidbits that I've been meaning to work into blogs of larger scope, but since it isn't happening I'll just lump them together here...

Cell Phones... another reason why people should not use them while driving: The decrease of singing along to the radio. That's right...back in the day, people used to rock out while in their cars alone... now, not so much. And usually watching people talk on their cell phones is so not exciting... but the other day, whoo hoo, I was at the light behind a guy who was really shouting into his cell phone. His truck was shaking. It was pretty exciting.

This weekend... Heading to the DARA conference. Yea! Hopefully I won't have to decide between the following two sessions: 1. How to Attract Agents and 2. Writing YA. (Which, just for the sake of ranting-why would they put the only YA session at the same times as the YA friendly agent, huh? Why?) And why might I not have to decide? Because I am (as of yesterday) at the top of Agent McDreamy's to do list! (We had a little email moment to which I am still recovering from my swooning...she had some cool things to say!!!) But still nothing official... so for now I'm not removing the stockpile of ice cream products I have at the ready.

Silence is SO not Golden

Well, I didn't get a call on my Golden Heart entry... which I kinda knew was likely. My story isn't a romance, so that is a big one... and there are a few things that may have raised eyebrows. And my synopsis was a wreck. But my feelings on this are complicated. Not sad, though... more contemplative...

The good news is that I have gotten some tremendous feedback on the story... (even a Salinger-esq... The next White Oleander... comments) and an agent who will be officially titled Agent McDreamy when she gets back to me with a "Yes! Yes! Yes!" *crosses fingers* --said she LOVED it and is SO interested (Caps are verbatim *blush*).

SO, it's not like I take the non-nod from the GH as meaning anything. Besides I have this weird feeling the GH is cursed... I don't want to get into that, though. Just saying that maybe it is a really good thing...

First Times...always special...not always great

Can you tell I like misleading (and often disturbing) intros? Anyway... the first book is always special... just not always great. Around the blogsphere authors are being very, very brave and revealing excerpts from their first times. Gena and Jill and Diana... have kicked it off. I love love love Diana's title "A Bride walks into a bar..." it is exactly the same kind of humor I have, and like her, I'm often reduced to saying, "Get it? It's a joke..." Anyway, Diana I'd pick it up.

My first time... well I guess I don't know if my first time really counts... gosh, don't I sound like a teen, huh? Remember that scene in Sixteen Candles when she gets the quiz and answers the question "Have you done it?" with "I don't know". Well, anyway... the book I consider my first was not completed, and so probably doesn't count. BUT still, I wrote it when I was about 15 (which is the funny part) and it reads a bit like The House of the Rising Sun (which is like a whore house). The mobster guy is the hero. Are you seeing some problems? Perhaps Puzo wasn't such great reading fodder for a FIFTEEN YEAR OLD?!?! But one of my "readers" did say that it was very Sidney Sheldon-like, which was high praise indeed! (and no, I'm not telling you the title, because it was the best part of the book and I'll probably re-use it!)

Oh well, one day I pull it out and read it and laugh. I'll probably be very embarrassed too, because I had my grandmother read some of it and she was a very old fashioned, deep Georgia South lady. She rode to school in a horse drawn cart for goodness sakes! But she loved it and encouraged my writing. And that is what is important.

The officially finished first book went very badly in terms of page count. It became a saga, then went the way of the Russians, and then topping out at well over 900 pages (conservative estimate) became a phone book. I probably had as many characters as one at any rate... But it still has some promise, I just have to get the chain saw out and make 3 or 4 books out of it.

Got Jock Support?

I'm very very lucky... since I was just a kid, pretty much my entire family has known I was going to be a writer. Imagine their surprise when I went into computers.... but I digress, (or was it that I digressed??) well, whatever... no one was really buying me as the Tech geek--Network Administrator that is my daytime cover... never mind that it scored me a sweet job schussing down the ski hills of Colorado (I worked at the Vail conglomerate that owns Keystone, Breckenridge, and Vail for five years or so) or that my address was *worldwide* there for six years as I worked for a cruise line. I mean, hey! I have a great career, I make good money! But...nooooo.... they won't be satisfied until I become an author. Because in their minds, when people ask what does Cin do? The answer in all of our minds first and foremost is: Cin writes.

And to tell you the truth, I get a big kick out of it.

We aren't a family of readers. In fact my biggest advocates are not readers--my father, my father's best friend, my male cousin who is like a total jock, my brother...

Men! I'll say it again... Men. Okay, so that was just for fun... but this is surprising, no?

So, I have some funny support stories, but I'll share just last night's. My brother comes in with the movie Butterfly Effect and hands it to me to watch. He heard the brief summary of my YA and thought it sounded just like the Butterfly Effect. It's not, at all, btw... he just heard changing fate and ran with it... but he (who is very quiet and never asks direct questions or seems interested about my writing per se, has been secretly thinking about it for months and was concerned that perhaps I had inadvertently--because I assured him that I had not seen the movie-- set myself up for the heartbreak of having written a story that has been done. (He, of course, does not realize that all the stories have in some way or another been done)

I tell you, that is support. It may not be the "Gee, Cin you sure do write real good" kind, but it is the I want you do well; I don't want you to be hurt kind. And when my cousin asks me at Thanksgiving dinner: "So when will you get published?" I don't hear: "God, what is taking you so long" -- I hear, "I can't wait for you to be published, because this is what is right for you." And for big, ol' guys who never read more than the newspaper in the crapper, I think that is pretty damn cool.

Nakid Plotting

Got your attention, did I?

Well there are basically two types of plotting talked about in the RWA: Plotting and Pantzing. I know I not a Plotter. Note cards scare me, plotting boards confuse me, and that writing page 2 after page 1 is just icky!

Pantzing is a fly by the seat of the pants approach. I've always thought that was me. I do a lot of day dreaming, I start my story with nothing but a title or a character or a situation, I write the beginning then the ending then bits of pieces that aren't jointed and then I add caulk wherever I need to fill in holes. But quite frankly, that doesn't sound very good. That sound like I slap together my stories and send them off with a lick-and-a-promise. So not true!

So enter my new plotting method:

The No-Pantzer!

That's right... Plotting in the nude... NAKID! Whoo-Hoo...

It is raw, honest, complete disclosure. It is about voice and getting that all important Je ne sais quoi. In the acting world they call it "Method Acting" and Val Kilmer is a great example. He becomes his characters, he no longer even exists. It is a beautiful thing. So, enter "Method Writing."

Now, does this mean that while writing a book, I will stay in voice and character until it is finished--like Philip Seymour Hoffman did for Capote... Gosh, I hope not...that could lead to some really strange scenarios.

Wait...Wait.. Hurry up!

OK--I admit it, my mind can't wrap around how long it takes to do things in publishing... 2 weeks to hear back on a query, 3 months on a partial, 4-6 on a full... And this is Good! So it takes a year to write it, a year to get an agent to like it, and then a year to publish. If all goes well.

YIKES!

But, we all hope for the fast track... a blog mates, I maybe on finally on it. See last Oct. I sent in a partial as part of an incentive program my local RWA does. My naive little self expected to hear back that week, because:

1> I felt like it was just that good of an idea.
and

2>I thought an incentive would trump anything in the submissions pile (non-client)

silly rabbit... I know. So I waited, and well it was the holidays, so that meant those two months didn't even count. Then I re-worked the piece completely. I yanked out all the paranormal-- so it looks a bit Swiss after that. And then I got excited and worked on the new query so that I could get back in the year-long waiting queue. And then the synopsis, in case I got a quick response for a partial.

OK. Good enough. But much to my surprise and shock, not hours after I sent two queries to my #2 and #3 pick agents... My Agent McDreamy writes and says... sorry I'm just now getting to this, is it still available before I look at it. Wow! talk about timing! I say you betchyas--can I send the reworked--you betchya-- and send I it along. THAT night she writes that she LOVED it. Yes in caps. And she would like to see a full...on exclusive for 2 weeks, but it would probably be faster!

Holey Cow! Oh wait, holey--that was my Full. I said I would love to but since I had made the major changes I wanted to have one more look at it. *cough* *cough* Can I send on Monday. She said of course...Tues would be even better. YAY!

So my weekend was spent entirely writing and proofing and writing and patching. Wax On Wax Off. And all of that. This morning I did the find string on there/their, hear/here, you're/your, its/it's, and my habit of putting a comma before too at the end of a sentence.

And now... she has the full. Rush Rush Rush and now I wait. But only for two weeks tops. Gotta love that!

I sure hope my Agent McDreamy loves it as much as I do.